devin taylor was born on september 13, 1987 to a sixteen year old in new york city. initially she had planned to keep him, but when she died in a car accident an aunt stepped up and adopted the baby, bringing him to palo alto, california. devin was raised being the same age as one cousin and a few years older than the other. while, he knows he is adopted and they are his cousins, he's always referred to them as siblings and his aunt and uncle are his mother and father.
dev was three when he was first thrown into a pool, literally. his father decided that the best way for the boy to learn to swim was to get over any fear of the water, the family was all around him so they knew he wouldn't drown. surprisingly the little boy took to it much like a fish, and in no time had learned to swim. at first swim is just a summer hobby, but as dev ages and gets better and better it's suggested that maybe he be coached and swim for real. leaving it up to him, his parents support his choice when at ten he's begging to swim for real.
devin spends all his free time in the pool, before school, after school and even when he should be doing homework, which his mother stops as soon as she notices his grades dip. she points out that school is just as important as swimming and if he doesn't keep his grades up she'll stop his coaching. by junior high he's competing and bringing home award after award, always placing. by the time he's fourteen the words 'olympics' are starting to be thrown around. he began going to worlds, placing at events that would lead to team usa inclusion.
between school and swim, dev has no real time for a girlfriend and he's surprisingly okay with that. he is asked to join the 2004 olympic swim team, where he will be going to athens and representing his country. he hits it off with the other swimmers, actually looking forward to qualifying and swimming. he places in his events, two silver and a bronze, which wasn't what he wanted but when he came home upset his mom pointed out that he just beat out a multitude of other swimmers from around the world and second and third place among the world's best was not bad at all. he got a new outlook and planned to bring home gold next time.
when college rolls around, dev enrolls but goes part time needing to be able to swim. he's an olympic athlete and while he wants to be sponsored his parents won't let him, reminding him that any athlete being paid can't get scholarships and he started attending stanford on scholarship. he starts dating a girl during his second year, it's the first time he had a girlfriend and he starts to falter in his swim. when he barely places in a qualifier he steps back from the relationship and puts his head back into the water.
beijing is where he meets someone who will turn out to be one of his best friends. they end up rooming together, the divers and swimmers always are at the pool together. he places again, this time one gold and the rest silver. he's excited, he did better, even if he got silver medals, he didn't get bronze this time. he's there as history is nearly made, watching michael phelps almost make history. he has a feeling his team mate will do it next time.
2012 saw dev finish his degree, something he doubts he'll ever use and fly off for another round of olympics. he's mid twenties now and he's not sure how much longer he plans to swim. three games is pretty good. he has people in the stands, his family and someone he was kind of seeing, but hasn't told anyone about, a boy that supported his drive for greatness and refused to get in the way. for the trip they are friends, but the pride dev feels when he looks out and sees him, he is glad he came. he places again, two gold this time. he watches history get made and thinks maybe it's time for a change.
devin isn't sure what brought him to boston. it's not where his birth parents are from, but he wanted something different. he knew he could still swim and in 2013 when he moved he continued to swim. but a pulled shoulder made him think about retiring. he started to actually look for a real job, something that didn't depend on his body and found he was still good at uncovering things. he joked around about becoming a private investigator and found a company that was actually willing to have him do just that for them. he's on their payroll, he looks into anyone they might hire for anything more indepth than a janitor.